Each of these are delightful but when I decided I wanted to do it I realized that I had no words… so I went looking and found HELLO, HUGS ( my favorite signature) and LOVE… each of them is interesting and I am looking for the HAPPY BIRTHDAY… I am having to look on line since they are not in any of the stores here locally. I found the HAPPY BIRTHDAY AS TWO WORDS not attached which is what I was looking for at AMAZON…and it was only 6+$..

You may find it somewhere else and be able to use a coupon I just don’t have the time to check out the stores available to me. Below are the ones I did find first and have made up to be used on a card…She used tape to hold them in place but I wanted to have the counter spaces ( those spaces like holes between the letters or as part of the letter) i.e. I didn’t like the look of the tape and I chose instead to use a background color that went with the cut out word and using it I used double stick take on the background piece and then applied the 3D piece on top of it so that the letters are now held in place and also the cut outs or counter spaces are showing that black ground color rather than dingy tape. Ok time for photos as we all know one picture is worth a thousand words…

kh 3D

this is there first one I did and I had used regular tape..its invisible on the non sticky side but you can see that it comes out dingy thru the counterspaces

kh 3D

This one I used the double stick tape on the black background and the black shows thru the counters and makes a nicer presentation I think.

kh 3D

This was also one of the early ones I tried and again used just regular tape to hold the word in place and again I don’t like the look the counters its kinda ghostly and I just don’t like the look so I will keep this one for a sample but not probably not send it. Then, I got to thinking why does it have to be just words… why try it with an image… I don’t have a lot of images but I had this little truck so i gave it a try… and loved it…

Then I got started just doing the word cut outs as inserts…not trying to make them 3D looking just an insert…. I came up with a few… thats what happens with me I get on a roll. One more note….you can do this even with punches if you don’t have embossing die cut machine or dies…. works the same way…just insert…

Well I am forcing myself to stop now… its laundry and dinner time…lol…

Ok my calligraphy buddies and those of you who like to play with funky letters this blog is for you….

MARY ANNE RADAMACHER is a wonderful card designer who has always used her own playful lettering styles. I first met/discovered her in CANNON BEACH OREGON where she started making unique cards with wonderful little quotes and sayings on them. SHE now has a website and sells her cards nationally. Her original cards all had little squares of paper then used SQUIGGLES to make a unique mark on the little square and while all of that was wonderful and made the cards very lovely the best part was her wonderful quote and if you check out her web site you will see there are several of them and she sorta has them in categories like GRADUATION, NEW HOUSE etc…this is the AMAZON link to her books and some of them are even available in digital format for Kindle…LOVE IT..I have several of her original books which I am guessing were more self published and now they have lovely colors on them… some of her quotes which I really love are COLOR OUTSIDE THE LINES…I AM NOT THE SAME HAVING SEEN THE MOON ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD....and my most favorite I COME TO SEE TO BREATHE….aaarrrggghhh Can’t believe I did that….it should have read...I COME TO THE SEA TO BREATHE…

Last year she shared a new alphabet that she had been playing with , with the calligraphy groups PENINSULA SCRIBES and NIB ‘N’ INKS..both in Washington state… I am sharing them with you and here is my exemplar .

kath harney’s exemplar of Mary Anne Radamacher’s letters

The fun/funky part of this alphabet is the addition of color…and you can see from my notes that I used a couple of different ways to add the color… You will also see from the sample of her own letters below that she picks and chooses which letters to add the color too..ie sometimes she colors in the O and sometimes she doesn’t again this would be your choice as well…

Mary Anne Radamcher

kath’s lettering

I used the SAKURA GLAZE BLACK PEN to write the letters and on the Happy Birthday I used the H20’s…and on BREATHE…I just used colored pencils. I also wrote both of these on a scrape of water color paper…..and the other letters are my akim lettering. Oh yes,…my HINT…do your writing in pencil first then you can trace over it with the GLAZE PEN. May help to avoid mistakes….

So I hope you have fun with this lettering and that you will just allow yourself to play.

She has lots of different cards and uses lots of different stamps not just STAMPIN UP although there are some STAMPIN UP stamps, papers etc…anyway I thought you might enjoy them so hope over and take a look. This was one of her designs… not find the exact embossing pen she mentions so I tried a couple of others and her were my results.

the pens I used all came from AMAZON and as you may have guessed one of them writes black , one white or clear and the third one clear….I used black and white embossing powder..the pens are WOW EMBOSSING PEN. the white and black come as a set by RANGER CALLED EMBOSS IT PEN… (please note the above images are not good due to my embossing powder not the pens…pens work great )

Then I also I also ordered a pack of zig embossing pens with various tips… some calligraphy some brush… I got them from Amazon… and here is what they looked like…so I really liked them also… each of them comes in double ended so I wrote with the larger size of each and I didn’t do the writer /bullet tip one cause its the same as the the other tips I already showed you… the Brush one writes in clear but the others all write in blue so that’s helpful in seeing where and what you wrote… just enjoy but if you are looking for variety the pack is the best…again all available from AMAZON. So now you can emboss your writing.

Since we are on calligraphy and lettering I am sharing a photo a friend my posted from our days of going to workshops at MENUCHA outside of Portland..I don’t know when this was taken but I do know we were all younger and just seeing this made me think of how much I miss them all.

EYE CANDY

I love this video and thought you would enjoy it also….a good reminder that we don’t need a lot of tools or accessories ….just a few pens and some coffee cups..COFFEE CUP ART.

ONE MORE… you know I spend a good deal of time in south florida and in addition I actually grew up here…..is one of my favorite artists..CLYDE BUTCHER and THE BIG CYPRESS SWAMP. Clyde is famous for his black and white photos mostly of FLORIDA but he does have images from other places as well…this video of the swamp will make you want to go there but not in summer …that’s when the bugs and humidity will make it better to just look at the video…lol… it is a beautiful place.

Ok I am sharing two different yet similar cards one from SCS and the other from DAWN… I do think they are both cute but I admit I have not tried the SCS card and may not because I do find it a bit busy plus it makes a bigger card than I usually send means you have to have a lot more embellishments, stamps etc….however, I know friends who would love this they don’t send as many cards as I do or they have some really special they went to do a card for and this would just make their day…so here are the images for the SCS CARD AND THE LINK IS BELOW IT…

NOW Dawn’s card was much more to my liking maybe due to the colors and images she used ( the other one was a bit too cutesy for me) but a lot due to the fact that when closed to mail it it is a 4×4 square….the other is more like a 4+x 6 card and as I said meant more embellishments… I also liked Dawn telling you in the video that thinner cards stock /designer paper was going to work better than thick cards stock…. So here are Dawn’s samples and then below is her link in blue…

I will also tell you that even her card got a bit busy for me but at least she is showing you to use the designer paper rather than try to fill all the spaces with stamps and stickers etc. Also she does have extra layers white base, black layer then designer layer… I went with just two layers the base and then my other color or designer paper and maybe stamps etc… that worked for me…

HUGE HINT…On my first one you will notice that I did accidentally cut my two triangles so that instead of meeting in the middle they were both sides the same….well I decided that once the designer papers were on it wouldn’t make that much difference so I DID NOT THROW IT AWAY…LOL..I went ahead and use it and I think it looks just fine but to prove to you that I can in fact follow directions I did a second one and got it right so don’t sweat the small stuff but really look before you cut those triangles on the card you might even want to make the one you want to cut off just so you don’t make a mistake …have a few friends who freak if they don’t get it perfect… PERFECTION IS FOR HALLMARK…not me… lol…

Here are both my efforts with their belly bands on…

Now if you look at them very closely you can see that the one on the right with the flower /butterfly has a triangle showing at the bottom that’s because that’s the one that I accidentally cut both triangles going the same way….duh

as you can see both the bottom /top flaps are folded closed and you can see that the two triangle are both going in the same direction so they are going to overlap rather than meet in the middle… like this…

as I said I don’t mind this the meeting is nicer but this is ok…and remember most people won’t know it was an error… lol…

Ok then here it is totally open and I think it looks great…I did only use one layer on each side designer on the outside and light weight off white on the inside…then this is one that I did correctly and I used sorta oriental black and white paper on the outside and then red on the inside…and you can tell that the triangle flaps are going in opposite directions so that they will meet in the middle

Ok this is it mostly open just the lower right corner closed so you can see the layer of the oriental paper …again I only used one layer of paper on both of these cards because while I think the double layer on top of a base card is lovely for me it does get awfully thick and harder to fold closed plus I just didn’t think that my design needed it…

Since my card is also 8x 12…the scoring is the same as Dawn’s and the layer I used is ¼ inch smaller so 3 ¾ x 3 ¾ for the square in center and the triangles then the rectangles are 1 ¾ x 3 ¾ then the little squares are 1 ¾ x 1 ¾ ….if you are adding another later to each of them then you will need to cut each of your pieces ¼ inch smaller ..just as Dawn shows ….but i would recommend that you use only text weight paper if you are going to create 2 layers on top of the base card…

Have fun while this looks complicated…it really isn’t and it does make a very impressive card…at least I think it does…

By the time you see this I will be spending a few well deserved days with my BFF at FT MYERS BEACH…it will however, probably be hotter than I would like but we plan to stick our toes in the sand and just relax.

ft myers beach from the air

this photo was from a FACEBOOK PAGE but I promise to share some photos of my own next time.

Every now and then a new tool appears on the market and often we are tempted to ignore it since we have something that already does what this new tools does and we are used to it and how it works so why take a chance….WELL that’s not me….I LOVE discovering new things and often they do work better than that which we currently use… WELL that’s what this blog is all about…

We have a myriad of ways to cut circles…we can have many punches, or we can use templates and tools like BIG SHOT or CUTTLEBUG or for a long time I have used the FISKAR CIRCLE CUTTER…

There is nothing wrong with this cutter and it was a huge improvement over the previous one I had which made a pin hole in the center of the circle . This cutter does however require a lot of muscle…you have to press down pretty hard to get it hold the paper then setting the size is always a challenge if you don’t have to be exact its not such a problem but if you needs exactly a 2 ¼ inch circle it gets tricky….I am not saying it can’t be done just saying that it isn’t so easy….the same is true with most of the templates like nestibilites you can measure them and see what size they are but they still might not be exactly what you want and the punches are getting better at telling you exactly what size they punch but if you have older ones you know that didn’t tell you the size, for me a horrid math student, measuring a circle is always difficult.

SO ARMED WITH MY WEEKLY COUPON FOR MICHAEL’S I stumbled upon a new circle cutter. THE fact that it was made by one of my favorite companies definitely gave me reason to pause and look at more closely. Its made by EK SUCCESS these people have been creating some of the BEST disposable calligraphy pens for years…the ZIG PENS and the ZIG WRITER’S AND the MILLINEUM FINE LINE ( which compares to the SAKURA MICRON PENS) I also loved that they got into the PUNCH business (FIRST, I THINK for MARTHA STEWART) then on under their own name…EK SUCCESS…I love that created locking punches so that they stored easier and for me they punch cleaner and smoother than almost any other ….they are also creating punches for STAMPIN UP…so anyway they had a good reputation with me…so I gave this circle cutter a look… and since I had my 40% off coupon on my phone I decided to do some marketing research and give it a try… My old boss DARLEN HELD always chuckled at my marking research but it was my way of testing and finding good products for us to sell in their small BOOK AND ART SUPPLY, FRAMING STORE…BOOK N’ BRUSH in Chehalis WA..I worked their for 13 years and it was probably the best job I ever had. Ahhh I digress…(SURPRISE) any way I brought this new circle cutter home and have just finished experimenting with it and THE VERDICT IS I LOVE IT..

ec success circle cutter

This is what the box looks like and I have to admit that I was also drawn to the image of the fortune cookie… I love making them.

close up of cutter itself

I used a shot from AMAZON to show you what it looks like thinking it would be clearer than me scanning it however its still not really clear so you will just have to trust me that it gives each circle size in 1/8th inch increments. The circle cuts from 1″ to 6″ circles and it doesn’t require the pressure that the fiskar requires to cut …NOW the HINT is that you will need to either be cutting on a sheet of paper that is larger than the cutter so that the rubber gray ring you see above hold the paper still…OR tape your paper down to cut cleanly. I did cut both a 1″ circle , a 6′ circle and a 2 ½ circle all very easily the small blade inserts into the circle template in the slot you choose for size and then simple hold the outer ring down on the paper and since I am highhanded I just proceed to cut clockwise but if you are left handed I am certain that it will cut just as easily counter clockwise.

SO I am not telling you to go buy one … and no I don’t get any kickback from EK SUCCESS but I did want to share that if you are looking for a new circle cutter or your first one I really like this one… as its new I can’t tell you how long the blade with last I am sure that depends on the types of paper you cut… it did cut text weight as well as thick card stock easily. It also comes with extra blades… and virtually no directions…lol…. but the cutter has a triangle tip and it only fits in the slot one way then just press down and twirl the blade around rather easily compared to how hard I have to press with the Fiskar cutter.

I admit I am an avid MARKETING REASEARCH person… i.e. I like looking for new things so just use this as a reference and if you need to replace then think about this one.

Oh yeah it was $19.00 at Michael’s and I would guess the same amount if they have it at JoAnn’s and it just slightly more from AMAZON but I am prime so that extra covers the shipping.

Let me know if you try it and if you like it … if you buy it from a storefront save your box and receipt, if you decide you don’t like it I am sure you can return it with your receipt for a store credit.

oh yeah one more HINT…you need to cut on a self healing cutting mat and if you have had that mat for long time and cut on it for long time you will know that it may not be SMOOTH any more. THOSE mats don’t really heal they do last a long time but every now and then they do need to be replaced depending on how much you use them and what you cutting with…this is one of those repurposing thing…they were actually made for quilters and cutting with rotary cutters so cutting over and over again in the same place will in fact leave scars that make it hard to cut over…so if your mat is bumpy you may not have as smooth a cut or easy a time as I had just a relative smooth mat. JUST A LITTLE FYI.

EYE CANDY.… my dear friend JO FORSYTH sent me this lovely EASTER card and I just had to share her variation of NEULAND LETTERS on watercolor paper…its the paper as well as her pen nib that gives it that streaky effect. JO also has her Neuland exemplar published in one of these two speedball texts AND she is published in a book about BOOKS BOXES AND WRAPS WITH MARILYN WEBBERLY both available from AMAZON.

Ok …first let me apologize for all the errors lately and for forgetting all the things I said I was going to attach.. my excuse ( and I know that’s what it is) my Mom’s apt complex had decided to do a renovation…they tore out all windows in complete building and since two in each apt were bay windows this meant tearing out the whole wall. Now just this would be hard enough for any 88 yr old but Mom has some dimensia so it has made it that much harder… and its warm here and we need to take her out of apt at 8 am every morning and not return till around 4pm each day….add in a dog that must go to the kennel for the day and then also be picked up each day and now you have it… It has been a long two weeks but we think we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. So forgive me and know that I will try to do better.

Ok if you are like me… by now you have so many dies you don’t even know which ones you do have and that’s not because you have too many ( I would never say that ) its because some of them are so similar that when you see them you go hummm do I have that or not…. and if its on sale …byzinga if you lucky you didn’t just buy the one you already have… ( I am a huge BIG BANG THEORY fan… and sometimes I feel a lot like Sheldon and sometimes more like Leonard…lol) Any way I do like making shaker cards and I LOVED HER IDEA OF USING YOUR FRINGE SCISSORS to make confetti and you can make it in a color that works with your cards… I also think that maybe the fringe confetti is enough and you don’t need the sequins..( not a fan) however I do have some store bought confetti easter eggs so that will be fun… not too many though or it gets stuck and doesn’t SHAKE AROUND…

ABOUT THE DIE ….Also I think her polaroid framelit is cute…but I as I said I have a ton of dies and I think I can create with any of the square dies and other shapes just as easy in fact easier since I can cut the margins around the cut out a little larger making it easier to put that foam tape on in fact I prefer to use the roll foam tape and spilt it down the center to use her’s works just fine and if in fact you do have the pop dots and have some margins to use then go for it but if you don’t have that available then its probably cheaper to buy the roll and cut the strips to size….

kath’s windows

I will confess that in my rush to make these templates I cut this circle one pretty tight…ie not much margin to use to put the foam tape on….

ABOUT THE CLEAR WINDOW….You can recycle some of the clear acetate that comes on the die packages or other packages… I do …but I also have clear acetate sheets that I buy from any office supply store and you can cut them up and use them….in the past I have found acetate folders in back to school stuff in a variety of colors so you could use those too but dark colors will not let you see what’s inside as well…ALSO AND THIS IS A HUGE HINT…. YOU DO NOT HAVE CUT YOUR ACETATE the same shape as your window opening… i.e. and round window can use a square of acetate ...NO ONE WILL SEE THAT AND ITS WAY EASIER TO CUT SQUARES OR RETANGLES THEN CIRCLES AND FUNKY SHAPES… you’re welcome… that’s one of those slap your head kind of things… and I know that because I use to make shaker cards using foam core board and that was a lot harder to cut in shapes… when they pointed out that you could cut the window opening in a square and then layer a smaller opening over the square in any shape you wanted …yeah it was a smack your head moment..

ABOUT THE INSERT GREETING….She doesn’t mention it but if you don’t adhere that insert card with the greeting down 100% your confetti and sequins etc are going to slide under it !! TRUE…so couple of options are don’t put your greeting on an insert just stamp directly on the backing for the shaker if you feel that you must put it on an INSERT…then do stick it down TIGHT..ie all the way around and whatever you do I don’t use pop dots to lift it and it will really mess up the shaking effect…

ABOUT THE WINDOW OPENINGS…. Here are just 4 that I came up with right away but there are lots more you could use the postage dies or the heart dies or the oval dies…. I would cut your shaker backing card approx 3 ¾ x 5 AT THE MAXIMUM…then make sure you leave about ½ inch margin around the sides of your window opening… this will allow plenty of room to put the foam tape on so that the confetti stays inside...DO FOLLOW HER INSTRUTIONS TO LEAVE NO GAPS…otherwise if you mail the card your friend might find a pile of confetti in the bottom of the envelope….lol….also this card is for sure going to need the extra postage…so just use so you don’t get it back… I think its 80cents now for a card with a bump or too much thickness to go thru the canceling machine which is lot like a breast exam…its gonna smash the crud out of your card…lol so better to just put the extra stamp and get it hand canceled of course I can’t guarantee that PO won’t still run it thru the machine but they aren’t supposed to.

ABOUT THE CONFETTI.… as well as using the fringe scissors you can also use a bunch of your little punches for confetti…and for that I need to do something to stay awake for the TV program that I am supposed to be watching… take assorted colors of scraps and bowl and sit there with your fringe scissors and cut up lots of different colors of confetti into ONE bowl so that you now have rainbow confetti to use rather than all one color…. you can do the same with your little punches… I have a wee tiny balloon punch and punching them while watching tv and in all colors plain and decorated paper gives a nice feel to the confetti ..when your done you can store it small zippy bags or you can use the bead containers that stack and store it in them….

MY FINAL NOTE IS LESS IS MORE.... I love Dawn’s cards but sometimes I do feel they get so busy that you can’t see what you wanted to be the focus in this case the shaker effect there is just so much going on on the front of the card that to me you loose the impact of having confetti in there there. I will also add that I have used sand in shaker card and I would suggest that even if your foam tape is tight a small layer of the glue around the inside and be sure to let it dry is another layer of protection to keep that sand inside…

OK that’s it…GO FORTH AND MAKE SOMETHING…

AS ALWAYS THANKS FOR STOPPIN BY.….wire headed cyber toad…aka kath

EYE CANDY…I think a lot of you are interested in ZENTANGLES so I am sending along this e mail from PAPER AND INK ARTS...you may recognize that name as my favorite calligraphy and art supplier. They now have their own blog and newsletter which they send out Monthly…this month there was both an article on Calligraphy/Calligrapher as well as an article on printing …. now that is printing with machines not your hand…lol…. and if you read the article you will see then at the bottom some wonderful ZENTANGLES which this person then had made into small times I assume to use as coasters… THEY ARE INCREDIBLE and the printed tiles are incredible too… so the info is there if you are interested in contacting them and having some of your art work printed. Let me know if you do, meanwhile enjoy. and GO MAKE SOMETHING

MY EXCUSES FOR POOR BLOG EFFORTS Ok …first let me apologize for all the errors lately and for forgetting all the things I said I was going to attach.. my excuse ( and I know that’s what it is) my Mom’s apt complex had decided to do a renovation…they tore out all windows in complete building and since two in each apt were bay windows this meant tearing out the whole wall. Now just this would be hard enough for any 88 yr old but Mom has some dimensia so it has made it that much harder… and its warm here and we need to take her out of apt at 8 am every morning and not return till around 4pm each day….add in a dog that must go to the kennel for the day and then also be picked up each day and now you have it… It has been a long two weeks but we think we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. So forgive me and know that I will try to do better.